2014.12.23 - Defend the Dome!
It comes without warning or fanfare. A shimmering ball of silver light about the size of s grapefruit. It brings a faint chime, a chilly breeze around it but somehow also a sense of warmth. Perhaps most attention getting is the cry of 'Please, help!' that comes from the light along with a sensation that if one if one wants to help, all they have to do is reach out ans touch that light. Those heroes that do will fight themselves suddenly pulled as if something grabbed them around the middle and yanked them rapidly through a tunnel of cool light. The trip ends rather abruptly with being dumped into about 7 inches of snow. Regardless of what they were wearing before, those helpful heroes will find themselves in their uniforms and thankfull fully geared. At least those that have that kind of thing. Behind them when they get up is a lot of snowy expanse and a few mountains. And in front of them...well that's a sight to be seen. A massive dome made of shimmering rainbow light. The outlines of buildings can be made out faintly but it otherwise hides what it defends. The starry sky above and full moon further illuminate the area and make it easier to see the heroes aren't alone. Nearby, what appears to be a ninja clad in red, mask covering their face, kneels in the snow catching their breath. And at their side is the pretty well known hero known as Axiom. He turns a concerned expression from this ninja to the arrivals. "Um, h-hi." As agile as he normally is, reaching out to touch a ball of light from his bed does not prepare The Spider for the sudden drop into the snow, and he lands face-first. Picking himself up quickly, after a quick check to realize he's in costume, he looks around, "What the..." Blur is, to put it lightly, very confused. She had thought she was dreaming, reaching out to a voice calling out for aid. But, there was no way this was a dream. She felt way too cold to be asleep in bed. The speedster looks around, instantly wary. She doesn't know Axiom by name or face, but he looks like a standard superhero. However, looks could be deceiving, so she wasn't quite ready to trust. She looks over at the other person, guessing that the male is also some sort of hero, maybe. She shakes off the snow, shivering slightly. "Where are we? Oh, Uncle's gonna be worried..." The ninja starts to stand and say something but Axiom steps forward first. "It's okay, I'll explain," he chimes. Taking a deep breath, Axiom looks to the Spider and Blur. "Sorry about the umm...weird travel. We're...and I promise I'm telling the truth...at the North Pole," he says with complete seriousness. "And you g-guys got called to help stop a demon that possessed a super villain," he goes on. Almost on cue, there's a deep and loud pounding sound from several yards away. The air is a little distorted but each noise of impact makes that distortion shake as if something unseen were punching at it. "Oh m-man...that barrier isn't going to hold too much longer..." Blur pales. She was still in training as a hero, she wasn't supposed to be fighting supervillians or demons! She's still uneasy from that encounter with Amazo. "A... demon? How are we supposed to stop a demon?" she squeaks. The small speedster looks back and forth, shaking even more now. "Oh man..." The Spider starts to say something, but then the pounding comes and he looks quickly towards where the air is shimmering. "Ok, demon supervillain, at the north pole. With no buildings to swing from... cool. This should be fun." Scarlet was in costume just observing matters. His black clad fingers rapped upon a surface when the blinding light made him hold up a hand. The black mask upon his head with the red spider eyes didn't really have anything to block bright light. "I really hope that's Santa come early. I've been really really good. Will saving that many people finally bring me a front row seat for a symposium with Neil DeGrasse Tyson and a dinner after." He breathed out deep down knowing it was probably not Santa. As efficient as the jolly man was the guy was never known to be early or late. The big guy was generally a right on time dude. "Is it jesus?" he asked before the light winked out. Thinking on it he hoped that his web history had been deleted. Axiom takes his staff off his belt as the pounding continues. He offers a reassuring smile to Blur though. "Well, k-kicking his butt should work. He's possessing a human host so all we have to do is keep him from getting into the dome," Axim explains. He blinks when he sees Scarlet Spider and then grins wider, having not noticed him at first. "Hi Scarlet Spider," he greets. "Actually the demon is the um...Krampus. And it's trying to get in there," he points to the done. "So it can break the seal binding his 12 evil brothers and sisters and then go terrorize all the children of the w-w-world. My boss sent me to help stop that and since we were a little out gunned we," he gestures at the ninja who's in the process of drawing a sword that seems to be made of rainbow light made metal. "cast a spell t-t-to summon heroes and..." before Axiom can finish, there's another lounder pound and the shimmering air shatters like glass. Glowing cracks spiderweb across the air and more of it shatters away to reveal the enemy. There's a pretty sizable squad of soldiers. From a distance they look relatively normal...but upon closer inspection...no face. And they look like they might be plastic. And with them? Well he's eight feet tall, furry goat legs, hooves, horns, a nasty olive green trench coat, a basket full of menacing looking branches, old rusty chains wrapped loosely around his body, and a pitchfork in hand. "CHARGE!" the Krampus beast calls, the soldiers beginning to march forward. Their weapons don't look like much but when the soldiers open fire, laser blasts fire at the heroes and the dome behind them. The Spider looks towards Scarlet as well and says, "Hey, Scarlet! Ok, maybe this won't be so bad after all." Then the enemy is revealed and he says, "Or, maybe it will." As the weapons start to fire he leaps into the air towards the soldiers, arcing over their initial laser blasts. Blur is somewhat glad she doesn't mind spiders. But, she does mind evil toy soldiers, especially when said soldiers are shooting at her. "Really?! This isn't what I had in mind when I wanted to be a hero." Taking a deep breath, she dashes forward, becoming as her codename implies and appearing as a indistict blur amongst the toy soldiers, trying to knock as many over as possible. "Some adults like the whipping he does. So ummm...there's no incentive!" Scarlet swung down both feet extended going toward the army. "Spider, Strange Girl, clear a path for Axiom. Let the wizard get his hex on!" he started yell with a firm voice. The leader of the Young Allies was taking control on this one trying to dictate who goes where. "Don't let the little ones intimidate you! They're more afraid of three brave heroes and their Asgardian sidekick than you should be of them. They're tied to the season and some weird fetishist demon." Quipping was a way Scarlet was trying to keep the nerves of everyone in check. If no one had any fear then they could have been on their "A" game. Driving both feet into the demons he was hoping to knock back a few. After that attack he just began swinging and aiming for faces with his web shooters if space permitted. The plan was to drive back and blind. Axiom yelps a little as a lazer blast gets a little too closer and singes some hair. He frowns before running forward to start fighting some of those soldiers. The ninja in red is coming along, slicing through soldiers with that shimmering blade. "Call if you need help!" the ninja yells to the others. Several of the soldiers are toppled by Blur. They're still for a moment before starting to get up. Some fire on Blur with their lasers and others swipe at her with the bayonettes attached to the end of the weapons. She might notice one of the soldier's no-face has been cracked. There's metal under there...ye...robots. A half dozen soldiers are knocked back by Scarlet Spider's initial charge, falling onto their plastic and metal backsides. Others open fire on him, not responding to his quips. The ones webbed are effectively blinded, stumbling about and trying to stab at Scarlet Spider with their weapons. Krampus is drawn towards the Spider first. When he lands from leaping over those lasers, the Spider will find himself with something new to dodge. Namely the huge demon lunging at him with a rusty pitchfork. "Naughty children breaking their toys deserve to be punished!" The Spider ducks back limbo-style to avoid the pitchfork, coming a hair from being stabbed. "Woah..." He then answers Scarlet as he spins quickly, brushing aside the pitchfork in an almost kung-fu-esque move as he straightens and bringing his other arm up to shoot a web at Krampus' face, "I'm more intimidated by the big one!" Blur finds that pucnching and kicking toy soldiers is different than beating up street thugs. These guys don't go squish. Also, shiney bits. "They're not dolls! They're machines!" she exclaims, kicking one in the head. Hopefully, the head goes flying, because that would amuse Blur. Either way though, she glances at Krapus, wondering if it really is a demon... "Doesn't matter. I'll handle the toys, take the big guy!" She knows she's the weakest of the heroes here, judging by size alone, and so she doesn't want to get in the way. Besides, she has to stop the soldiers from damaging that dome! "Speedster. Look for a power or battery source, expose it, let me and Spider remove them! Keep your eyes out for battery packs or power sources Spider!" then he saw Spider going after the big one. "Pull back and let the magic one work his mojo." Scarlet webbed a toy then started to swing it above his hand before letting it go toward Krampus like a hammer used during the hammer toss in track and field events! "I'm not exactly Dr. Strange," Axiom calls to Scarlet Spider, diving into a snowbank to avoid a few shots. He pops back out a moment later and tosses a snowball at a soldier. He leaps to kick it when the soldier is distracred, knocking it off its feet. The ninja meanwhile is slicing through robots and occasionally flinging frosty shuriken. "I have a plan but we'll need cover," the mysterious woman calls, gesturing for Axiom to follow her slightly away from the battle. The kick from Blur doesn't send the head flying but the soldier's helmet goes soaring off into the distance. The head just breaks into a sparking mess. And now the soldier is groping blindly for the speedster with kung-fu action grip. Krampus roars when it becomes the focus of a Spider-Team up. The webbing blinds the creature temporarily but it provides enough of an opening for Scarlet Spider's projectile to slam into its side. The demon stumbles to the side and falls to one knee in the snow. With a growl, it tears the webbing off its face and starts swinging those chains. As the metal moves it emits a very unpleasant and even painful sound but it also burns what it comes in contact with. And right now those chains are being swung and whipped at Spider and Scarlet Spider. The Spider twists around, shooting webs out to two nearby soldiers, leaping into the air, gives a hard pull. With no grounding, the force is split between pulling him away from Krampus and towards the soldiers, and pulling the soldiers into the path of the chains where he was standing a split-second before. "Big and clumsy. Not so scary after all." "What the hell am I supposed to be lookng for, I dunno how these things are made!" Blur yells in annoyance. "Wait... batteries usually in... the chest? No, the back!" Running off toy logic here, she changes tactics a bit, now going after the toy soldiers from the rear. She's not feeling cold now, but she is feelin excited and a bit afraid, but not so much as before. "This is easy!" Spide Senses screamed at Scarlet and he jumped, and barely avoided the chains. Landing on the ground he yelled out, "I'm not into male, holiday themed demons. If you were a female holiday themed demon, maybe...big maybe. I'd have to be desperate enough. Unfortunately my lady friend is not the sharing type so I couldn't." Webbing another toy soldier he tried to hurl it at Krampus, "YOU'D JUST BREAK MY HEART ANYWAY!" He wasn't sure how the phsyical attacks would have done against an actual demon of sorts. Scarlet Spider was a man of scienece. Did he believe in magic? Full heartedly. However, no one was going to declare him "Sorceror Supreme" anytime soon. So he would have to settle on the physical. "How's it going group!?" he called out to the team. "Never call a battle easy Quicksilver. The second you think a battle is easy you either get your ass kicked or the bad guy tries harder!" That was just Newton's law applied to heroics. "Remember Flash, always keep your head in the game and be ready for anything. Got it Jessie Quick?" Yes, Blur had yet to introduce herself so she was getting called the codenames to every quickster under the sun. It takes some effort...mostly due to the soldiers being animated and trying to kill her at the time...but Blur should be able to discover that the soldiers' backpacks come off. Below them are what look like oversized battery doors. And inside are devices shaped like oversized AA batteries with energy arcing around them. They won't be hard to pull out but they'll give a nice shock. Nothing deadly but it'll probably hurt and at least make hair stand on end. It's a good idea to dodge those chains. The soldiers they hit are melted clean through and snow they connect with burst into clouds of steam. This time the soldier thrown by Scarlet Spider is batted aside with a growl. The Krampus stands and reaches into the basket on his back. Two things are taken out. The first appears to be a rather large sack which is tossed to the ground near The Spider. The bag sits there for a moment before starting to move. It inflates slightly, a growl coming from it. And then it's suddenly leaping at the smaller spider with its 'mouth' wide open to grab him. The second object the Krampus draws is one of those branches, the black bark catching some of the light of the night. The demon flashes a fangy smile before darting at Scartlet Spider with surprising speed. "I'll break more than your heart, boy," the demon hisses, grabbing at the clone with huge hand. Axiom shoots Scarlet spider a little fanboy frown at all the mentioned names but offers no comment. He can't help it. He's too busy right now anyway. He's busily drawing some arcane symbols in the snow with his staff while the ninja chants. "Keep them b-busy longer! This should help!" the Young Allies' power booster calls. The Spider swings a kick towards another soldier to send it flying, then turns back to see the sack. "What... ah!" He leaps back just barely in time again, his spider sense alone saving him from being a snack of the strange fanged sack. Blur ignores all of the random nicknames getting tossed at her. After all, it's not like she knew their names either. She might as well get in on the action, though. "Hey Spider boys! These guys run on giant batteries!" Now knowing exactly where to target, the speedster's main object is to disable as many of the toy sodliers as possible, and hope that the others can handle themselves. Because, frankly, she was having a hard tome handling her side of things, even if she didn't complain. She wasn't used to have to speed around back and forth so much so quickly.... "That's great Maxine Mercur-" Scarlet was suddenly grabbed by Krampus as he was responding to Blur. Yes, the spider-senses gnawed at him, but the demon was just way too fast. Barely pulling a hand free Scarlet moved his fingers. A small "click" went off. The next time he touched his webshooter two orbs shot out of them. Both were aimed at Krampus's face. Impact webbing was just one of the ways his webshooters differed from the other spiders. Sure, it used up a lot of webbing but it had a strong chance to heavily blind and maybe even cut off the air supply to, the big demon with the very mean looking stick. "Get ready!" Axiom calls, the circle he's drawn glowing as he starts to glow his usual way as well. It won't be too long. The strange bag of doom growls in frustration as the Spider evades its 'jaws'. The creature snaps at the air a few times before seeming to get an idea. It's 'mouth' opens wide, giving a view of the swirling void inside. And then the suction begins. Swirling air and a powerful pull targets the Spider, the creature not caring if it pulls in soldiers or snow along the way. The soldiers are falling as Blur goes for batteries but there's a bunch to go after. Thankfully they aren't as fast as her. And if she's fast enough, she may even be able to get them to shoot one another. At least the ones that haven't moved entirely towards stabbing at her with their bayonnettes. As soon as Krampus has Scarlet Spider, it swings its branch right for his backside. When it connects with those spider-buns the blow'll feel like it cuts to the core, a mark likely left despite unharmed clothes. Of course the moment of imapct lines right up with the Impact Webbing connecting. Krampus' roar is a muffled one but he's not letting go of Scarlet Spider. No, the demon starts squeezing with one hand while the free one claws at the webbing. The Spider scrambles, grabbing at the ground as he's pulled in towards the sack, but he's surrounded by snow. There's nothing solid to grab hold of. At the last second, he shoots a web out to the dome, giving him something to hold on to against the suction, but that likely makes him an easy target. Scarlet screamed from the spank. This was going to be so humiliating. How many heroes were able to say "I got spanked by the villain I was trying to capture?" Besides, that one Green Lantern. Him and that villain, now reformed, had some issues back in the day apparently. The whole thing was just degrading. However, all of the pain that surged into his backside made it so he didn't care about it for the moment. Feeling the squeeze caued air to leave Scarlet's lungs. He then tried to push out of the grip using all of his muscles and force into it. Hopefully this plan to break free was going to work. Blur is having her hands full with weaving between pointy blades and getting mildly electrocuted every time she rips out some batteries. Her hands were pretty much numb by now, and the rest of her was feeling tingly, like someone had hit her funny bone everywhere at once. She chances looking around the battlerfield, and gasps. One of the Spider boys was about to be eaten by... Oogie Boogie's baby brother, it looked like. The other Spider was in the demon's grasp. She froze for a instant, eyes wide. "W-what do I do?" She gulped, and made her choice. Sprinting towards The Spider with all her speed, she hoped to crash into him safely and get him out of range of that sack thing. Thankfully the dome was pretty solid despite apparently being made of light. Magic, it's like that sometimes. But this left the Spider dangling in mid air as the bag kept trying to make a snack out of him. At least until Blur knocks them both out of the funnel and into the snow. The bag stops its suction but only long enough to look for the heroes. Krampus meanwhile is still tearing webbing off and squeezing. It would take a lot of effort to not get squished like a spider. But thankfully for Scarlet his plan was a good one and hope was a good idea. The ninja's chanting has been gradually growing louder and the glow brighter. But it suddenly looks up and the light reaches peak brightness. "NOW!" Axiom nods, tapping into his powers and boosting the others. There's a huge burst of light all all three heroes will find themselves boosted by Axiom's power. The usual increase in power along with an energy recharge and slightly faster healing. But tonight it comes with something extra. A glowing, rainbowy aura coating each of them. Scarlet Spider will see just what it does first. Krampus yells out in pain, hand burnt by just coming into contact with Ben and the clone will easily be able to break free. "What is this?!" the demon demands, finally freeing its face from the webbing. The Spider oofs as he's knocked away from the bag, but as soon as he pulls in a breath he says, "Thank you!" Bouncing back to his feet he tries to spray down the sack with webbing in the moments it's taking to find them again. Then he stands up straighter as he feels the sudden boost and refresh. Blur grimaces as both she and The Spider plant in a snowbank. Better than ending up as stuffing, she thought as she pulled herself up. "No problem!" she told her fellow young hero, panting a bit even as she gave a half-hearted salute with two fingers. She felt exhausted.. until she didn't. Whatever that light was, it felt wonderful. Her aches vanished and she grinned. "Alright, round two!!" Re-engergized, she dazed back into the fray, knockingtoys over left right and center. "Child's play!" she cackles with a goofy grin, feeling very confident now. Feeling the boost Scarlet smirked under his mask. Sure, one web shooter was low, but it wasn't running on fumes. Each shooter had three orbs a piece. Two "thwps!" went off. Landing them on Krampus and giving himself a little distance Scarlet ran and jumped. Suddenly yanking on the two weblines he launced himself into Krampus with both feet forward, "THIS! IS! CHRISTMAS!!!!!" Scarlet howled like Leonidas while he was moving forward. There's something that comes along with whatever spell that ninja cast. The Spider's webbing carries that rainbow aura and when it hits the sack, the creature squeals out. The webbing not only binds it but is starting to melt the creepy critter. Soldiers scatter and shatter as Blur races through their ranks. Snow is kicked up behind her, further distrupting the soldiers. Most are ending up as wrecked piles of metal and plastic thanks to the speedster. Krampus swipes at the webbing with its branch only to end up horrified as the ebony weapon shatters. Magic. It's almost slow motion as Scarlet Spider's feet connect. There's a large flash of light and a howl from the demon. A normal sized humanoid figure is knocked from the beast, tumbling into the snow in an unconscious heap. The Toyman. The Krumpus? It's slowly fading away into wisps of rather vile smelling smoke while cursing in rage at the heroes. The spell melted a circle of the snow. The ninja is putting away their weapon. Axiom meanwhile is sprawled on the tundra covered in glittering soot. He coughs a few times as he sits up. "Ow." The Spider looks down at his hands a moment, only noticing the aura now that it's melting the sack-creature. "Coool." He turns his attention to Krampus again as Blur deals with the soldiers, but Scarlet Spider's dealt with him dramatically. "Yeah!" Blur really enjoys smashing up the army of toy soldiers. Of course, she doesn't get to break things often without getting into trouble. Once she's demolished most of the soldiers, she looks over to the defeated villian. A... creepy doll guy? "That's... a supervillian? He's smaller than I am!" the speedster says, throwing up her hands. "Well, the demon's gone now. Lemme finish the tin soldiers off." Some extra smashing happens, somewhat creative destruction ensues, and Blur is standing on a pile of scrapped machines, looking mighty pleased with herself. "Yay team!" Scarlet walked up to Toyman...slowly. Grabbing the villain by the ankle Scarlet shook the guy. He wanted to see if goodies came out. "Speedy, search this guy then run off and get me a big giant Christmas card, and a giant red bow. I've got plans for this one," people could feel the wolfish grin that was underneath his mask. By the time Blur came back she could see Toyman was shot by two impact webbing balls and pinned to the wall by LOTS of webbing. Taking the bow he placed it on Toyman's head. Then he signed the card "To: The Police." "From: Young Allies and Friends. XOXO." He nodded. "Looks better already." Not many cookies are shaken free. A yo-yo, a paddle ball, and some jacks...but it's probably best not to touch those. This is Toy Man after all. He offered no resistence to being bound up though, too busy being knocked out. The toy soldiers are easily taken down and shortly after the Krampus is gone, the bag dissolves completely as well. Not too far away from the site of the battle there's a small booth that looks like its decorated for christmas. There's no one inside but there's a few cards and a selection of candy for Blur to find. Axiom's dusting more glitter-soot off himself as he approaches to see Ben making the card. He snickers a little when he reads it. "Great gift," he chimes. The ninja meanwhile is slowly taking off its mask...to reveal a rather old woman under that mask. She lets out a breath and puts on a pair of glasses. "That was quite the ordeal. Thank you all. Without your help, the season would have been ruined," she says, the dome slowly begining to dissolve away and reveal several large buildings. And some elves. And reindeer. And even Santa Claus himself waiting for the dome to come down completely. Yes. They just saved Santa's workshop. "Would you all like to come in for some hot chocolate and cookies before we get you home?" the woman asks with a smile. "Oh where are my manners. I forgot to introduce myself to you. My name is a Martha Claus." Blur makes sure to tie some ribbons on Toyman, Because why not, it makes him look festive! When she sees who the ninja was, her jaw drops. "No way..." Her mind has just been blown. She had stopped believing in Santa a long time ago, for being a kid still. But now... "It's... it's real?" The Spider laughs at Scarlet's 'card', but then turns to look back to the ninja and into the dome, and just stares a moment. "Wow. This has to be a dream..." Then he answers, "Um, yes, please." How can one possibly turn down hot chocolate and cookies at /Santa's Workshop/, whether he's dreaming or not? Blur adds. "Yes please Mrs. Claus~!" Scarlet looked at Martha Clause. Then he did a double take, "I uummm...yeahh...Hot chocolate sounds good. But, I don't want anything. Get these three people whatever they want. If you could get the top thing of another hero's list. Her name is Flurry. She's special to me," Scarlet blushed a little then looked down. "I am just in it because it's the right thing to do. Hot chocolate will not be declinedt hough," Scarlet presumed the top thing on their holiday wishlist were going to be given. Unfortunately Scarlet would never have that luxury being a clone. He was a well paid clone so Scarlet wanted others to benefit from Santa's magic. Martha laughs a little, smiling warmly. "Alright then. Come along now, dears," she says, starting to walk towards the workshop and gesturing for the heroes to follow along. "Stan, five cups of hot cocoa and a plate of cookies please," she calls to an elf who salute and rushes off with a cry of 'Excelsior!' It hasn't been a silent night but it's been saved all the same and it looks like there'll be some Happy Heroic Holidays. Category:Log